Newly Added or Updated
Case Summaries

Maricopa County, AZ

Eric King

Dec 27, 1989 (Phoenix)

Eric John King was convicted of the murders of Ron Barman, a store
clerk, and Richard Butts, a security guard. The murders occurred
during a midnight robbery of the Short Stop convenience market at 48th
Street and Broadway in Phoenix. The robbery was captured on
videotape and grainy images from it showed the robber was a black male
wearing a dark sweater with a band of light colored, diamond-shaped markings
across his chest and arms.Read More by Clicking Here

Potter County, TX

Johnny Frank Garrett

Oct 31, 1981 (Amarillo)

Johnny Frank Garrett was sentenced to death for the rape and murder of
76-year-old Sister Tadea Benz, a Roman Catholic nun. Benz had been
found dead in her room at St. Francis Convent, 4301 N.E. 18th Ave. in Amarillo,
TX. The DA's
office and the police linked the crime to the rape and murder of
another woman, Narnie Box Bryson, in the same neighborhood four months earlier. They claimed there were too many similarities between the two crimes for
them to be coincidental.Read More by Clicking Here

Allegheny County, PA

Michael Day

Aug 10, 1994

Michael Day was convicted of the rape and murder of his
three-year-old daughter, Tequyla Pierce Day. On the night of her death,
Michael’s wife, DeAnndra Day, called 911 and reported that she found Tequyla
face down in the bathtub. She was not breathing. When paramedics arrived they
found Michael, wrapped in a bedsheet at the waist, incorrectly attempting to
perform CPR on Tequyla. Michael’s naked body was exposed when the sheet was
taken to wipe vomit from Tequyla’s face. Michael said he had genital herpes
and had not been wearing underwear to speed up the healing process. The
initial autopsy report, completed by forensic pathologist Dr. Shakir, said
that Tequyla died as a result of severe brain edema due to meningitis with
drowning as a contributory cause.Read More by Clicking Here

Philadelphia County, PA

John Miller

Oct 8, 1996

On October 8, 1996, Anthony G. Mullen was murdered in a
parking lot near Amtrak 30th Street Station where he worked as an attendant. Police had no witnesses, no leads, no idea who committed the crime. Not until February 1997, that is, when David Williams was arrested on
suspicion of having committed a string of armed robberies. Williams
asked to speak with a homicide detective he knew, saying that he had
information about the Mullen murder and who committed it. Williams
told police that John Miller, who had no prior criminal history, had
confessed to him to having killed Mullen. Williams then provided detectives
with convincing details about the crime. Based on the information
provided by Williams, detectives interviewed 17-year-old Mike Arnold, who
corroborated certain parts of Williams’ story by saying that he saw Mr.
Miller pick up a gun on the street days before the murder.

On June 24, 1997, John Miller was arrested for the parking lot
murder of Anthony Mullen. Called by the Commonwealth to testify at the
preliminary hearing and trial, Williams recanted his statement to police,
saying that Miller had never, in fact, confessed to him. Nonetheless,
police were allowed to read into evidence Williams’ statement. That
out of court statement and Arnold’s testimony—with no corroborating physical
evidence of guilt—was all of the evidence that convicted John Miller of
second degree murder. He was sentenced to life imprisonment on
December 15, 1998.

Both witnesses have since come forward to say that their
testimony at trial was false. Not surprisingly, David Williams now admits
that he knew about the murder because he is the one who committed it.
Moreover, after speaking with Pennsylvania Innocence Project investigators,
Mike Arnold signed an affidavit stating that he lied when he testified
against Miller and that his story about the gun was false. On July 18, 2011,
Williams gave staff members from The Pennsylvania Innocence Project a
detailed statement in which he confessed that he tried to rob Mullen and
then shot him, although not intentionally. In his statement, Williams
acknowledged that, by confessing to killing Mullen, he could be subjecting
himself to the death penalty or life imprisonment, but he was making the
statement nevertheless because he was consumed with guilt for falsely
implicating Miller in this crime. – Quoted from
PA Innocence
Project (Innocence
Institute)

Dauphin County, PA

Patrick Brown

Apr 8, 2001

Patrick Brown, who had no prior record, has spent ... nine
years in a Pennsylvania prison serving a sentence of 22 to 70 years for a
burglary/robbery he did not commit. He was convicted in 2001 by a jury on
the basis of a victim eyewitness identification even though a second
eyewitness did not identify him and even though the blue bandana worn by the
robber and left at the scene bore the DNA of another. In 2006, five years
into Patrick's sentence, the assistant district attorney who tried Patrick
came into possession of DNA evidence that matched the DNA on the blue
bandana. The DNA belonged to a male in custody in Pennsylvania who closely
resembled Patrick. Perhaps because the statute of limitations now barred the
prosecution of the actual perpetrator, the assistant district attorney took
no steps to remedy Patrick's wrongful conviction. Without doubting the
accuracy of the DNA evidence that established Patrick's innocence, the
prosecutor did not contact Patrick's trial counsel, he did not inform the
Court of the new, exculpatory evidence, he did not forbear from opposing
Patrick's 2006 PCRA petition, he did not seek to remedy the conviction by
any means. If he communicated the finding to Patrick in a 2006 letter as he
claims to have done, the letter never reached Patrick and no copy has ever
been produced.

[In Dec. 2009,] through a fortuitous chain of events, and
without any awareness that the Commonwealth possessed the exculpatory DNA
evidence, Patrick's new lawyer learned the identity of the actual assailant.
She asked the trial prosecutor to have that person's DNA compared to the DNA
on the blue bandana. At that point, the assistant district attorney said
that testing would not be necessary since he already knew from the 2006
sample that the lawyer had correctly identified the real perpetrator.

On June 17, 2010, Patrick Brown was granted a new trial based
on stipulated facts known to the assistant district attorney since 2006. The
charges against Patrick have since been nolle prossed. The
assistant district attorney maintains that he has acted as a "minister of
justice." –
Case Summary from PA Innocence Project (Brown
v. Beard)

Germany

Richard Simmons

June 1985 (Lübbecke)

“Richard Simmons was wrongly convicted as a British soldier
stationed in Germany of the 1985 rape and murder of [Sabine Rosenbohm, an
18-year-old German.] After 8 years of imprisonment a German judge ordered his
release when it was proven that his DNA didn't match that of the
murderer/rapist. Simmons had been convicted because his blood, like half the
men in Germany, was the same type as the murderer, and the case against him
was otherwise circumstantial.” –
FJDB

Cook County, IL

Michael Glasper

Mar 16, 2006

“Michael Glasper was wrongly convicted in Chicago of the
robbery of a [South Loop] parking lot attendant in September 2006. One of
the items stolen was the attendant's cell phone. Glasper and his girlfriend
found a cell phone near Chicago's Columbia College where his girlfriend
worked. She scrolled through the numbers stored in the telephone. She
identified the owner, called her, and returned the telephone to her. The
robbery victim called the police to report the returned phone. In her
statement to the police the victim described the robber as a person 7 inches
shorter than Glasper. However, because of Glasper's record they considered
him as a suspect. The victim subsequently picked him out of a lineup as the
robber. Michael Glasper was convicted based on the victim's in-court
identification, and he was sentenced to life in prison as a habitual
offender, because of two robbery convictions in the 1990s. Glasper's
conviction was overturned on appeal, and he was acquitted after a retrial in
July 2008.” – FJDB

Jasper County, SC

Roger Bostick

Mar 7, 1999 (Pineland)

Roger Bostick was convicted in 2001 of murdering his neighbor,
69-year-old Sarah Polite. Polite served as the treasurer and secretary
of her church. Typically, she would bring home a briefcase containing money
from the church on Sunday for deposit at the bank on Monday. On a
Sunday afternoon she had been struck in the head with a blunt force object
and her house was set on fire. She died from smoke inhalation.

Two days after the murder, car keys and other items belonging
to Polite were found on a burn pile at a nearby property belonging to
Bostick's mother. Specks of blood were found on Bostick's jeans which
according to his attorney were “microscopic, not visible to the naked eyes
except under very close inspection.” DNA analysis was performed on a sample
of this blood. Analyst Nancy Skraba testified that while ninety-nine
percent of the population could be excluded as contributing to the sample,
she was unable to determine whether the blood sample actually came from
Polite. Evidence of gasoline was found on Bostick's shoes which was
also used to start the fire in Polite's house.

Defense witnesses presented testimony which cast
suspicion on Polite's son, Rudy. According to one witness, Polite was upset that Rudy fixed
everyone's car except hers, threw her keys at him, and then went inside
her
house. The witness saw Rudy drive off in a truck a few moments later. Rudy
stated he left to go to an auto parts store to buy a part for his mother's
car. When he returned about an hour later, the house was engulfed in
flames. Another witness testified that after Polite's body was brought out and
placed on the ground, Rudy started to smoke a cigarete and “didn't express
any emotion or feeling.”

At trial Bostick requested a directed verdict of aquittal due
to insufficient evidence, but it was denied. In 2011, the state
supreme court ruled that trial court erred when it denied this request. It found that the state's evidence had only raised a suspicion of guilt. The ruling acquitted Bostick and he was subsequently released from prison.
(State
v. Bostick) (Justice:
Denied) [12/11]

Israel

Gregory Bashirov

2002 (Rishon LeZion)

“Gregory Bashirov was wrongly convicted in October 2003 of
[the 2002 murder of Igor Dvozhinov, 25, in Rishon LeZion,] Israel. Three
witnesses who knew Bashirov gave conflicting statements to police that they
saw him stab the man, but they also said they saw another man, Fuad Mordov
commit the murder. After Bashirov was arrested, Mordov left Israel. Bashirov
was prosecuted without Mordov ever being questioned. With Bashirov the only
available suspect, he was prosecuted, convicted of the murder, and sentenced
to life in prison. He appealed, and in a decision announced June 3, 2006,
Israel's Supreme Court overturned Bashirov's conviction, citing their was
reasonable doubt of his guilt. The Court stated that the physical evidence
pointed to Mordov, and that the witnesses identification of Bashirov was
unreliable – ‘A lot of pressure was exerted on the witnesses ... pressure on
this type of testimony was liable to have led to an undesireable result,
even to the point of incriminating someone who did no wrong.’ Bashirov was
released after three years of wrongful imprisonment.” –
FJDB

Lake County, IL

Jerry Hobbs

May 8, 2005 (Zion)

Few cases have damaged Lake County’s credibility as much as
the one against Jerry Hobbs. In the spring of 2005, Hobbs arrived in Lake
County after a two-year stint in a Texas prison for chasing a rival for his
girlfriend’s affections with a chain saw. His plan was to reconcile with the
girlfriend, who was now living in Zion, Ill., and to become reacquainted
with their three children.Read More by Clicking Here

Cache County, UT

Debra Brown

Nov 6, 1993 (Logan)

Debra Brown was convicted of the murder of Lael Brown, her
unrelated employer. Lael, an elderly man, was wealthy and owned
numerous rental properties throughout Logan, Utah. He was known to
keep large amounts of cash in his home from collected rent payments. During its investigation, police found that Debra had forged nearly $3,000 in
checks to herself on from Lael's accounts. They alleged that Debra murdered
Lael to conceal her financial deceit. At trial the medical examiner
testified that the murder probably occurred Saturday morning between 6:30
a.m. and 10 a.m. – the only time that weekend that Debra didn't have an
alibi.

However, evidence has since been uncovered evidence that the
medical examiner initially declared the time of death to be midnight
Saturday or early Sunday morning. They also have found evidence that
suggests that the prosecutors and the medical examiner conspired to change
the time of death to put Debra at the scene of the crime. Witnesses have
since come forward to say that they saw Lael Saturday afternoon, eliminating
the possibility that he was killed Saturday morning.

Debra's attorneys also believe that evidence about another
potential suspect was never fully investigated. Bobbie Sheen was a tenant
with a troubled past who had recently been evicted from one of Lael's
apartments. Sheen had complained to a friend about Lael and his wealth, then
mysteriously began flashing around large amounts of cash near the time of
Lael's death. Sheen also had a gun almost identical to Lael's, which he
refused to sell to his interested friend, but instead disposed of it in the
marina. Brown told police about Bobbie Sheen's eviction and one of Sheen's
friends tried to tell police about the angry comments and piles of money,
but was told to stay out of it. Sheen committed suicide in August 2007.
(Deseret News)
[9/11]

Malaysia

Raj Brothers

2003

Sathis Raj, or his identical twin brother, Sabarish Raj, age
27, parked his car outside a house in suburban Kuala Lumpur and was
arrested. Police found bags of drugs in the trunk of the car and also
in the house. The bags contained 166 kilos of cannabis and 1.7 kilos
of raw opium. His twin arrived later at the scene and was also arrested. Since the second twin, unlike the first, did not have house keys on him, he
could not be charged with possession of the drugs. Drug trafficking in
Malaysia carries an automatic death sentence. Police however lost
track of which twin they had arrested first. Each twin maintained he
was arrested after the other.

According to High Court judge Zaharah Ibrahim, “This is a very
unique case as they are identical twins. Even the DNA evidence could not
prove anything as the DNA could be either Sathis' or Sabarish's. I can't be
calling the wrong twin to enter his defence. I can't be sending the wrong
person to the gallows.” The judge acquitted the pair citing reasonable doubt
as to which twin had been arrested first. (AFP)
[9/11]

Penobscot County, ME

Stain & Cromwell

Feb 22, 1878 (Dexter)

David L. Stain and Oliver Cromwell were convicted of the
alleged 1878
murder of John Wilson Baxter. Baxter was the cashier at the Dexter
Savings Bank and was found in the vault of the bank, wounded, gagged,
handcuffed, and unconscious. He died a few hours after he was found. Following an initial investigation, the local townspeople were divided on
whether Baxter committed suicide or was murdered. There was little
evidence of an intruder, but some thought it unlikely that Baxter could have
gagged and handcuffed himself.Read More by Clicking Here

Richmond, VA

Cox & Hood

Aug 31, 1990

Jeffrey David Cox and Stephen James Hood were convicted of the
abduction and stabbing murder of 63-year-old Eloise Cooper, a black woman. Two neighbors, both blacks, who witnessed the 3 a.m. abduction, stated the
perpetrators were two white males. Police believed the perpetrators to be
Billy Madison and Stephen Hood, but neither witness identified them in a
lineup. Instead, they tentatively identified Jeffrey Cox, who was included
in the lineup because he was a friend of Madison and because Hood suggested
he might have been involved. Both witnesses said they wanted to see Cox in
person to be sure. In a later lineup, one witness failed to identify Cox,
and the other witness was not asked to view the lineup. Nevertheless at
trial, both witnesses identified Cox as one of the perpetrators. Police
believed the other perpetrator was Madison.Read More by Clicking Here

Beaver County, UT

Tony Hamilton

Sept 9, 1999

Tony Alexander Hamilton was convicted of the attempted murder
of Sheriff's Deputy John Chambers. Hamilton was a member of a religious
commune that had purchased 640 acres of land at Vance Springs, located west
of Milford, UT. The commune believed that as a religious organization it
possessed tax-exempt status and consequently did not pay taxes. After 5
years of non-payment the property was seized by the taxing authorities.Read More by Clicking Here

Dauphin County, PA

Willie Comer

1961 (Harrisburg)

After being identified by witnesses, Willie Comer, 19, was
convicted with two other men of taking part in a $250 holdup of the C & D
Café in Harrisburg. Some months after Comer's conviction, a co-defendant,
Dewitte Brown, 25, wrote to the DA and told him that Comer had nothing to do
with the robbery and that Harold L. Edwards, 19, was the third man in the
robbery. When brought to trial, Edwards admitted that he, not Comer, was
present at the holdup. Edwards was acquitted after claiming he was unaware
of the robbery plans of the other two men. Comer was released from Eastern
State Penitentiary after four months of incarceration. His conviction was
vacated and the charges against him were dismissed. (Gettysburg
Times) (The
Innocents) [3/11]

Philadelphia County, PA

Vincent Moto

Dec 2, 1985

“Walking home from a local mini-mart, just after midnight on
December 2, 1985, the victim in this case was approached by two men driving
a Chevrolet Caprice. The passenger, later identified by the victim as
Vincent Moto, got out of the Caprice, pulled a gun on the victim, and forced
her into the car. The two men sped off to another location, where they
proceeded to simultaneously sexually assault the victim. Before
pushing her out of the car half-naked, the two assailants robbed the victim
of her money, glasses, and gold chain.”

“In May of 1986, the victim saw Vincent Moto walking on a
Philadelphia street with a woman and a young child. Though five months
had passed since the incident, the victim was convinced that Moto was one of
her two attackers. In response to her request for help, George Upshur
detained Moto until the police arrived. Moto was arrested and charged
with multiple felonies. Despite the alibi testimony of Moto’s parents,
who testified that their son was at their home on the evening of the
criminal incidents, Moto was convicted. The prosecution’s case hinged
almost entirely on the strength of the victim’s eyewitness testimony. Moto was sentenced to a term of twelve to twenty-four years. He served
nearly nine years of his sentence before being released in July 1996, when
PCR based DNA testing on material taken from the victim’s underwear
eliminated Moto as the source of the spermatozoa.” –
John T. Rago (IP)

Harris County, TX

Frances Newton

Apr 7, 1987

Frances Elaine Newton was sentenced to death for the of
murders of her husband and two children. The husband, Adrian Newton, was
found shot to death in the family's apartment along with the couple's two
children, Alton, 7, and Farrah, 1. The apartment was located at 6126 West
Mount Houston Road, Houston, Texas. Less than a month before the murders,
Frances purchased a $50,000 life insurance policy on Adrian and forged his
name to complete the deal. She also purchased a separate $50,000 policy on
Farrah. At the time of the murders both Frances and Adrian were seeing
other people.Read More by Clicking Here

Tarrant County, TX

Richard Jones

Feb 19, 1986 (Fort Worth)

Richard Wayne Jones was convicted of the abduction and murder
of Tammy Livingston. Around 7:30 p.m. on Feb. 19, 1986 witnesses
Ruthie Amato and her two daughters watched as Livingston was abducted from a
Michael's store parking lot in Hurst, Texas. Between 9:20 p.m. and
9:45 p.m. the same night, a witness named Robert Speights heard screams
coming from a field at 4600 Randol Mill Road in Fort Worth. At 11:20
p.m. a fire was reported in the field. When police responded they
found Livingston's body. She had been stabbed 19 times.Read More by Clicking Here

February 2011

Bexar County, TX

Kia Johnson

Oct 29, 1993 (Balcones Hts)

Kia Levoy Johnson was sentenced to death for the shooting
murder of William Matthew Rains. Rains, a store clerk, was shot during
a 2:45 a.m. robbery of a Stop 'N Go convenience store at 3309 Hillcrest Dr.
in Balcones Heights, Texas. The assailant was unable to open the cash
register and took it with him. The details of the crime were captured
on video by a store security camera.Read More by Clicking Here

Jackson County, MO

Byron Case

Oct 22, 1997

Byron Christopher Case was convicted of the murder of
18-year-old Anastasia WitbolsFeugen. He was sentenced to life imprisonment
without parole. On the night of her alleged murder, Anastasia had been with her
boyfriend, Justin Bruton, 18, and another couple, Byron Case, 18, and Kelly
Moffett, 15. The four had met at around 8:30 p.m. According to Byron and
Kelly, Anastasia was angry at being picked up three hours late, got into an
argument with Justin, and soon left the vehicle at a stoplight. Anastasia
was found shot dead at 3:45 a.m. that night in a nearby cemetery. Justin never talked to the police and less than 48 hours
later, he was found shot dead 30 miles away from a self-inflicted gunshot
blast to the head.Read More by Clicking Here

Cameron County, TX

San Benito Three

Dec 23, 1984

Davis Losada, Jose “Joe” Cardenas, and Jesus “Jesse” Romero
were convicted of the rape and murder of 15-year-old Olga Lydia Perales. Losada and Romero were sentenced to death while Cardenas was given life
imprisonment. Perales had been found Dec. 24, 1984 in the brush on the
outskirts of San Benito, Texas. She had been bludgeoned 10 to 20 times
about the head and shoulders and stabbed twice in the chest after her
death. Two weeks later on Jan. 8, Rafael Levya, Jr., age 16, told his
probation officer he knew who killed Perales. Leyra initially stated he had
only seen the murder, but he would eventually admit involvement.Read More by Clicking Here

Harris County, TX

Robert Drew

Feb 21, 1983

Robert Nelson Drew was convicted of the murder of 17-year-old
Jeffrey Mays. In Feb. 1983, Mays went traveling with his high school
friend, Bee Landrum, in Landrum's 1973 Maverick. Both were runaways
with alcohol and drug problems. While traveling, the two picked up
numerous hitchhikers along the way to obtain gas money. In Lafayette,
LA they picked up Drew, then 23, and a man surnamed Frank. Mays and
Landrum agreed to drive the men thirty miles east to Franklin, LA. Drew assumed driving duty within 4 blocks of his pick-up point, but got
stuck in the mud while crossing a highway median to make a U-turn. In
Franklin, Frank bought pizza and beer for everyone, filled Landrum's car
with gas, and gave Drew $65. Mays and Landrum agreed to take Drew to
Houston in exchange for more gas money.Read More by Clicking Here

Elkhart County, IN

Edgar Garrett

1995 (Goshen)

“Police in Goshen, Indiana persuaded Edgar Garrett that he
killed his daughter, Michelle, who had mysteriously disappeared. During fourteen hours of interrogation, Edgar Garrett gave an increasingly
detailed confession describing how he murdered his daughter, whose body had
not yet been found. No independent evidence linked him to the crime or
corroborated his confession. At the same time, his post-admission
narrative contradicted all the major facts in the case. Edgar Garrett
confessed to walking into a park with his daughter through new-fallen snow,
bludgeoning her with an axe handle at a river's edge, and dumping her body
in the river. However, the police officer who arrived first at the
crime scene did not see footprints in the snow-covered field at the entry to
the park but, instead, saw tire tracks entering the park, bloody drag marks
leading from the tire tracks to the river's edge, and a single set of
footprints going to and returning from the river. Obviously, someone
had unloaded Michelle Garrett's body from a vehicle and dragged it to the
river, but Edgar Garrett did not own a car and no evidence was ever
developed that he had access to one that day. Michelle Garrett's coat
was recovered from the river separately from her body and had no punctures,
suggesting that she had been killed indoors and transported to the river
bank.”

“Edgar Garrett's confession regurgitated the theory the police
held at the time of the interrogation: that his daughter had been clubbed to
death. Weeks later, when Michelle Garrett's body was recovered, police
learned that she had been stabbed thirty-four times; that her body showed no
evidence of significant head trauma; and that the axe handle Edgar Garrett
confessed to club her with showed no traces of her hair or blood. At
trial, the jury acquitted Edgar Garrett.” –
Leo &
Ofshe

Deschutes County, OR

Robert Hernandez

2008

Robert Hernandez was convicted in 2009 of child abuse charges
against a 6-year-old girl and sentenced to 31 years in prison. Hernandez lived with his girlfriend Tamara Denetclaw. The alleged
victim was Denetclaw's cousin whom the couple had been raising since the
child was 2. The couple raised the child because her mother lived on
the streets and couldn't take care of her. The mother was also legally
married to a registered sex offender and there are two registered sex
offenders on her side of the family. When the child was 6 the mother
decided she wanted her back. Since Hernandez and Denetclaw did not
have custody, they had to comply. Many weeks later the mother brought
back the child back saying she couldn't take care of her.

At an interview at the Kids Center, a child abuse
organization, the child reportedly gave a taped statement that she was
abused. The Center sent the child home with Hernandez. They
later claimed they did not know what else to do. The Center also told
the child's mother what was said, but never mentioned Hernandez. They
later claimed that they did not tell her Hernandez was the abuser because
they were afraid the mother would beat Hernandez up.

The Kids Center told the mother they taped a medical
evaluation of her child. They had her sign a paper saying they would
not use their child's statement for teaching purposes and that the reason
they taped her child was so that her child would not have to testify in
court. However, at Hernandez's trial, the Kids Center claimed that
they did not tape the child; that it is not their policy to tape medical
evaluations; and that they took notes. But when asked to see the
notes, they said they did not keep them; they shredded them. The child
testified for two days, but never mentioned Hernandez.

The medical examiner said he could not diagnose or confirm any
abuse. Hernandez gave a confession to the alleged charges which he
contends was coerced. A psychologist testified that Hernandez tested
in the 95 percentile of being a person who says what people want to hear. The psychologist was the only trial witness the defense was allowed to call. The District Attorney, Mike Dugan, was one of the founders of the Kids
Center. Dugan was voted out of office in 2010 and the new DA fired the
original prosecutor in the case. (Source: Relative of Hernandez)
[2/11]

England (Hove CC)

Sheila Bowler

May 13, 1992 (East Sussex)

Sheila Bowler was convicted of
murdering her late husband's 89-year-old aunt, Florence Jackson. While
Bowler was driving Jackson one night, a tire on her car became deflated and
Bowler stopped on Route A259 near Station Road in Winchelsea. She left
Jackson in the car and went to seek help. She knocked on the door of a residence
and met a Mr. Soan. She used his telephone to call
for roadside assistance. When she came back to her car with Mr. and
Mrs. Soan, Jackson was missing. In the search for Jackson that
followed, Bowler told others not to look far away, as she did not think
Jackson was mobile enough to have wandered very far. Jackson's
body was found the next day 600 yards away in the River Brede. She had
drowned.Read More by
Clicking Here

Berrien County, MI

Maurice Carter

Dec 20, 1973

Maurice Carter was convicted of the attempted murder of Thomas
Schadler, an off-duty Benton Harbor police officer. Schadler was
shopping with his wife at the Harbor Wig and Record Shop on East Main Street
in Benton Harbor when a man suddenly and without provocation pulled a
.22-caliber pistol and shot him six times. There were twelve
eyewitnesses to the crime.Read More by Clicking Here

Wales (Cardiff CC)

Cardiff Three

Feb 14, 1988

“Yusef Abdullahi, Tony Paris, and Stephen Miller
[were dubbed by the media as] the Cardiff Three. Twenty-year-old prostitute Lynette White was murdered
on Valentine's Day in 1988 by being stabbed more than 50 times. Stephen
Miller was the boyfriend and pimp of Ms. White. Miller was coerced into
falsely confessing to the murder of Ms. White after 13 continuous hours of
being shouted at and threatened by police interrogators. His false
confession implicated his two codefendants who were likewise innocent. Once
he confessed, the police stopped investigating promising leads that may have
led to the killer. The three men were convicted in 1990 and sentenced to life
in prison. The convictions of all three codefendants were quashed by
England's Court of Appeal in 1992 and they were released after 4 years in
custody.”

“Six years after their release journalist Satish Sekar, who
had aided in the release of the men, published a book about the case – Fitted
In: The Cardiff Three and the Lynette White Inquiry. As a result of the
information in the book Ms. White's murder case was re-opened in June 1999. In 2003 DNA testing of crime scene evidence identified Jeffrey Gafoor
[as] Ms.
White's murderer. Gafoor was one of Ms. White's clients. He pled guilty to
her murder in 2003 and was sentenced to life in prison. In December 2008
three witnesses who gave false evidence at the trial of the Cardiff Three
were jailed for 18 months after pleading guilty to perjury. In March 2009
two more witnesses at the trial were charged with perjury, and 13 police
officers involved in the original investigation of the murder were charged
with perverting the course of justice for their actions that amounted to
framing the three innocent men for the crime.” –
FJDB (Innocent)

San Mateo County, CA

George Franklin

Sept 22, 1969

“In January 1989, Eileen Franklin-Lipsker was playing with her
young daughter, Jessica, and as the child turned toward her, a memory of
another girl in just such a pose sprang into Franklin-Lipsker's mind. The
memory was of her childhood best friend, eight-year-old Susan Nason, being
raped and killed by Franklin-Lipsker's father nearly 20 years earlier.”Read More by Clicking Here

Oneida County, NY

Steven Barnes

Sept. 18, 1985

Steven Barnes was convicted in 1989 of the rape, sodomy, and
murder of 16-year-old Kimberly Simon. Witness testimony indicated the
following: (1) Barnes was near his
pickup truck about 6 p.m. on Sept. 18, 1985. The truck was parked
adjacent to Mohawk St. in Whitesboro, NY. (2) Simon was seen walking along
Mohawk St. and was also seen in a pickup truck which was about to enter
Mohawk St. No witness could say with certainty that Barnes and Simon
were together, nor could any witness say Barnes had ever met Simon. The following day Simon's dead body was found near a gravel pit off of
Mohawk St.

Forensic testing revealed that hairs found in Barnes's truck
were similar to those of Simon, soil samples from his truck were similar to
those taken from the place where her body was found, and an imprint in dirt,
lifted from the fender of Barnes's truck, was consistent with the fabric of
the jeans worn by Simon at the time of her death. Additionally, Robert
Stolo, an inmate at the Oneida County Jail, contended Barnes made an
admission of guilt him. According to Stolo, when he, Barnes, and
another inmate were discussing “some girls,” Barnes said, “You mean the one
I killed” and then said “I mean the one I am accused of killing.” Barnes was exonerated of the crime in 2009 after DNA tests proved his
innocence. (People
v. Barnes) (IP)
[2/11]

Harris County, TX

Robert Justin Kaupp

Jan 13, 1999

Robert Justin Kaupp was convicted of murder and sentenced to
55 years of imprisonment. On Jan. 13, 1999, 14-year-old Destiny
Thetford disappeared from her home in suburban Houston. Kaupp, 17, was
a close friend of Nicholas Thetford, Destiny's 19-year-old half-brother. Kaupp went with the family to report Destiny missing. He later helped
pass out flyers in the neighborhood and joined in searches for her.

Police later learned that Nicholas had a sexual relationship
with his half-sister and he and Kaupp were together on the day Destiny
disappeared. On Jan. 26, police questioned Kaupp and gave him a lie
detector test which he passed. Kaupp was cooperative and police let
him go. Nicholas was also questioned and given lie detector tests,
which he failed three times. Eventually Nicholas told police that he
was angry that Destiny ended their relationship and that he stabbed her to
death and placed her body in a drainage ditch. He also implicated
Kaupp in the stabbing and the hiding of the body.

Police did not seek to obtain a formal arrest warrant for
Kaupp, as they did not believe that they had probable cause for one. Instead, using Nicholas's statements as evidence, they sought a pocket
arrest warrant from the district attorney's office, but it was denied. Nevertheless, police behaved as though they had a warrant and six police
cars arrived at Kaupp's home at 3 a.m. on Jan. 27. After Kaupp's
father allowed officers entry, they awoke Kaupp with a flashlight. A
detective identified himself and told Kaupp, “We need to go and talk.” To which Kaupp replied, “Okay.” Police then placed handcuffs on Kaupp
and led him, shoeless and dressed only in boxer shorts and a T-shirt, out of
his house and into a patrol car. No evidence indicated that Kaupp was
told that he was free to decline to go with the officers.

At the police station Kaupp denied any involvement in the
victim's disappearance, but 10 or 15 minutes into his interrogation, after
being told of the brother's confession, he admitted having some part in the
crime. He did not, however, acknowledge causing the fatal wound or
confess to murder, for which he was later indicted.

In 2003 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Kaupp's confession
had been coerced as it was the product of an illegal arrest. A Texas
Court of Appeals then overturned his conviction. Since his alleged
confession could not be used against him at a retrial, the charges against
Kaupp were dropped. (U.S.
Supreme Court) (Court
of Appeals) [2/11]

January 2011

San Francisco County, CA

Chol Soo Lee

June 3, 1973 (Chinatown)

In 1974, Chol Soo Lee was convicted of the first degree murder
of Yip Yee Tak with the use of a firearm and was sentenced to life in
prison. The case was tried in Sacramento after a change of venue from
San Francisco. Prosecutors relied on two eyewitnesses who saw the
murder, which took place on a Chinatown street corner in San Francisco on
June 3, 1973, and on the testimony of a third witness who saw someone
fleeing the scene just after the shooting. After suggestive procedures
were used by police and prosecutors, including hypnotizing one witness, all
three witnesses identified Lee in a police line-up. Based on this
eyewitness testimony, Lee was convicted.

In 1977, writer K.W. Lee wrote a series of articles that cast
doubt on the validity of Lee’s conviction. The articles garnered
significant media coverage of the case and generated a community movement in
support of Chol Soo Lee.

In October 1977, Lee was charged in San Joaquin County
Superior Court with the first degree murder of fellow prisoner, Morrison
Needham, which occurred during a prison brawl. The 1974 murder
conviction was alleged as a special circumstance making Lee eligible for the
death penalty. He was convicted and sentenced to death. Lee
maintained that he committed the prison killing in self-defense.

In 1978, the Sacramento Superior Court agreed to review the
1974 murder conviction. At this hearing, lawyers for Lee revealed that
an additional witness, Steven Morris, had come forward the day after the
shooting and told police that he had seen the murder and that Lee was not
the assailant. The court ruled that this crucial evidence had been
withheld from the defense, and overturned Lee’s conviction. In 1980,
the Court of Appeals of California for the 3rd Appellate District affirmed
the lower court’s decision.

In 1982, Lee was retried for the murder of Tak and was
acquitted. In 1983, the Court of Appeals for the 3rd Appellate
District reversed Lee’s conviction and death sentence for the prison murder,
citing false testimony of a prison informant and improper jury instructions
that were given during the penalty phase of the trial. Two months
later, San Joaquin County Superior Court Judge Peter Seires ordered Lee
released. Prosecutors then moved to retry Lee on the prison killing
charge. Chol Soo Lee, who had served nearly ten years in prison,
agreed to plea to a significantly lesser charge that gave him credit for the
time served and he was freed from prison. – Quoted from
DP Focus (80)
(20/20
Video) (Part
2)

Alameda County, CA

Huey P. Newton

Oct 28, 1967

Before any evidence was heard, many Americans believed that
Huey P. Newton, co-founder and “minister of defense” of the Black Panther
Party, had murdered a police officer in cold blood. Others were
equally certain that the charge was a trumped-up attempt to crush the
militant Black Panther Party.Read More by Clicking Here

Kings County, NY

Vincent Rivers

Sept 16, 1978

“Vincent Rivers was convicted of murder in the second degree
in a Kings County retrial in [Nov. 1979], following [a hung jury mistrial]. He was sentenced to twenty-five years to life in prison. [The victim, Dutch
Reid, was shot and killed at 2080 Nostrand Ave. in Brooklyn.] A third trial
ended in a mistrial. A fourth trial [in 1983], at which Rivers was again
convicted of murder, was reversed because of numerous prejudicial errors by
the trial court. On July 17, 1986, following a fifth trial, Rivers was
acquitted on all counts.” – Inevitable Error
(Appeals)

Westchester County, NY

Luis Marin

Dec 4, 1980

“Luis Marin was convicted in Westchester County of twenty-six
counts of murder arising from a [fire at a Stouffer’s Inn in Harrison, NY.] Marin successfully moved the trial court for a post-verdict order dismissing
the indictments based on insufficiency of the trial evidence. The
prosecution appealed. The Appellate Division and Court of Appeals upheld
the trial court order of dismissal. It was held that having an empty
gasoline container and siphon in his car were insufficient facts to support
the inference that Marin had set the fire. In sum, the evidence presented
at trial was simply insufficient to sustain the charges. ‘[T]he loss of
life at the Stouffer’s Inn fire was a tragedy of staggering proportion ...
However, the tragedy would be compounded by the conviction and imprisonment
of a person whose criminal responsibility for that tragedy has not been
proven.’” – Inevitable Error (Appeals)

New York County, NY

José Carrasquillo

Mar 29, 1983

“José Carrasquillo was convicted of second-degree manslaughter
in New York County on December 17, 1986. [The victim, Dominick Barberi, was
assaulted outside the La Fontaine Boutique on Sixth Avenue near 21st
Street.] The prosecution charged that Carrasquillo had inflicted a fatal
blow upon the victim, who was apparently shoplifting from the boutique where
the defendant worked. The victim died two days after the attack. The
Appellate Division reversed the conviction on April 21, 1988, and ordered
the indictment dismissed. The court held that the evidence was insufficient
to establish that Carrasquillo, rather than his accomplice, had struck the
fatal blow.” – Inevitable
Error (Appeal)

Saratoga County, NY

Daniel P. Boutin

Nov 26, 1985

“Daniel P. Boutin was convicted of two counts of criminally
negligent homicide in Saratoga County on February 5, 1987. While driving
his truck on the Adirondack Northway in Saratoga County, Boutin collided
with a police car that had stopped in the right hand roadway behind a
disabled tractor trailer. The police car’s lights were flashing, but
visibility was low due to fog and rain. Both the state trooper and the
driver of the disabled truck, who were seated inside the police vehicle,
were killed. The Appellate Division affirmed the conviction, but the Court
of Appeals reversed, holding that the evidence does not show that defendant
was engaged in any criminally culpable risk-creating conduct.... Rather, it
establishes only that defendant inexplicably failed to see the vehicle until
he was so close that he could not prevent the collision.... [T]hat
unexplained failure, without more, does not constitute criminally negligent
homicide.” – Inevitable Error (Appeals)

Bronx County, NY

Georgino Borrero

May 8, 1982

“Georgino Borrero, a [drug] store security guard, was
convicted of criminally negligent homicide in Bronx County on July 6, 1983,
in the shooting death of John Johnson. [The shooting occurred near the
store located at 1500 Metropolitan Ave.] On appeal in 1986, the Appellate
Division found that, after Johnson pulled a gun on him, Borrero had left the
store to find a police officer and fired only when Johnson advanced toward
him with a gun and assumed a ‘combat stance.’ The court found that Borrero
had ‘acted entirely reasonably.... [His] conduct was that of a responsible
citizen.’ His conviction was reversed and the indictment dismissed.” –
Inevitable Error
(Appeal)

Bronx County, NY

Boone & Cleveland

Convicted 1973

“[Larry Boone and Arthur Cleveland were] convicted of murder
in Bronx County on December 6, 1973. [Boone's] conviction was reversed
on July 15, 1975, because the prosecutor had failed to disclose crucial
exculpatory evidence. On remand, the trial court dismissed all charges
because the detective’s notes had been lost and because witnesses favorable
to the defense (whose identities were not revealed by the government at the
time of trial) were no longer available, and because there was no proof of
Boone’s criminal intent other than his mere presence at the scene. The
Court of Claims granted Boone summary judgment on his wrongful imprisonment
compensation claim. He had been sentenced to twenty-five years to life
in prison, and had served nearly two years before being released.”

“[Cleveland] was sentenced to twenty years to life in prison. His conviction was reversed in 1975 on the authority of People v. Boone, on
the grounds that the prosecutor had unconstitutionally failed to disclose
crucial exculpatory evidence. The trial court on remand dismissed all
charges. Cleveland had been imprisoned for four and one-half years.” –
Inevitable Error
(People
v. Boone) (People
v. Cleveland)

New York County, NY

Bryan Blake

Aug 2, 1985

“Bryan Blake was convicted of second-degree murder in New York
County on December 5, 1985. The conviction was reversed on July 14, 1988,
on the grounds that both defendant’s videotaped statement, containing
improper remarks by the prosecutor, and photographs of the victim’s body,
which were shown to the jury during trial, were unduly prejudicial. Blake
had been sentenced to twenty-five years to life in prison. The jury which
heard the case on retrial acquitted him after ninety minutes of
deliberation. ‘It wasn’t even close,’ said one juror. Said another: ‘We
felt they had no case ... [W]e were surprised it got to the grand jury. It’s incredible what can happen to people, to be dragged into court with
such a little bit of evidence.’ Blake had served over three years on the
wrongful conviction.” – Inevitable Error (People
v. Blake)

Monterey County, CA

Lorenzo Nuñez

Nov 16, 1994 (Salinas)

“A jury convicted Lorenzo Nuñez of murder for supplying rifles
used in a gruesome slaying, even though scant evidence showed Nuñez knew of
the assailants’ intent. The 6th District Court of Appeal upheld the
conviction, but a federal judge overturned it because the jury was shown a
videotape in which police lied to Nuñez about the strength of the evidence.”Read More by Clicking Here

Santa Clara County, CA

Darcius Butler

2001 (San Jose)

“Just one month out of prison, Darcius Butler was arrested and
then convicted on robbery charges, although the evidence was thin. Two
years later, an appellate panel overturned the conviction because the
prosecution twice indicated that Butler was on parole – despite a judge’s
order not to do so.”Read More by Clicking Here

Santa Clara County, CA

Daniel Aleman

Apr 12, 1994 (San Jose)

“Daniel Aleman was convicted of carjacking after a judge
promised to review evidence of the crime that surfaced during a closed-door
juvenile hearing and then said the evidence didn’t help Aleman’s case. The
6th District Court of Appeal reversed the conviction after discovering the
judge could not have reviewed the hearing transcript because it did not
exist.”Read More by Clicking Here

Salt Lake County, UT

Joe Hill

Jan 10, 1914

“Just before 10 pm on the night of 10 January, 1914, John
Morrison, a Salt Lake City, Utah, grocer and a former policeman, was closing
his store with his two sons, Arling and Merlin. Two men wearing red
bandannas forced their way into the store. One of the intruders shouted
'we've got you now', levelled a handgun and shot Morrison. Arling Morrison
grabbed his father's old service revolver and fired two shots at the masked
men, who returned fire and fled the scene. Merlin, the younger child,
stayed hidden in the back of the store.”Read More by Clicking Here

Norfolk, VA

Kenneth Holland, Jr.

June 17, 1948

Kenneth Raymond Holland, Jr., a former police officer, was
convicted of the murder of Charles Everett Utt. Utt was found three miles
from his residence bludgeoned with a hatchet in the back seat of his
automobile. Police determined that Utt was killed in a lane in the rear of
his residence. Holland had been going out with Utt's wife. The
relationship was known by her husband and had continued for years. Blood
was found on clothes owned by Holland, but none of the blood was found to be
of Utt's blood type. Holland maintained the blood came from a fight with a
third party. A witness placed Holland at a beer tavern more than a mile
from the the scene of the murder on the night of its occurrence. No other
evidence of any significance was presented. On appeal in 1949, an appeals
court overturned Holland's conviction after finding the evidence against him
was insufficient to support it. In 1950 Holland was acquitted at retrial.
(Holland
v. Com.) (MOJ) [1/11]

Macomb County, MI

Louis Abraham Nasir

May 1965 (Warren)

“Louis Nasir was once arrested for commission of a crime as
the result of mistaken identification. Although no charges were
brought his picture was taken and found its way into the ‘mug book.’ Several years later in May of 1965, a bandit wearing wraparound sunglasses
and a straw hat held up a credit union in Warren and escaped with almost
$5,000.00. There were three witnesses, the manager, an employee named
Dimples Anderson and a credit union customer. On the afternoon of the
robbery the manager and Dimples were unable to select anyone from a mug book
and were unable to select anyone from a lineup in which Louis Nasir was not
present. The day after the robbery the manager and the employee picked
Nasir from a mug book and also picked him in a one-man ‘show-up’ from behind
a one-way glass. On the following Monday all three witnesses picked
Nasir from a lineup that did not appear unfair in itself from the record,
absent any prior suggestion in the one-man photo show-up or any suggestion
that may have occurred in the use of photographs.”

“Nasir was tried for robbery and the sole issue was
identification. Despite the testimony of six witnesses who said they
saw Nasir at work the day of the robbery, the jury believed the
identification testimony of the credit union manager, Dimples Anderson and
the customer and returned a verdict of guilty. Nasir was sentenced to
serve 7 to 20 years in prison.”

“The court-appointed attorney who was to prosecute the appeal
was convinced of Nasir’s innocence and enlisted the aid of the two
detectives who helped convict Nasir. Working together, the three men
found the man who confessed to being an accomplice to the crime. The
real robber, who resembled Nasir, had been shot to death in February, 1966. A friend of the dead man, who was serving time in Jackson, corroborated the
story by revealing that the crime had been admitted to him before the death
of the real culprit.*”

“An hour after Nasir took lie detector tests he was freed on
bond pending a new trial and the charges were dismissed on motion of the
prosecutor. Nasir had spent 375 days in prison.” –
P v A
*The credit union customer turned out to be involved in the robbery and
admitted his perjured testimony. However, this witness had no impact
or contact with the other two witnesses who made their ‘positive’ and
unshakable identifications 3 times before the customer was even available to
view a lineup.

Wayne County, MI

Charles Lee Clark

Nov 23, 1937 (Hamtramck)

“On November 23, 1937, three men held up a clothing store in
Hamtramck. The owner was shot and killed. The owner’s daughter,
who was 21 years old at the time, went to the assistance of her father and
was slugged with a revolver by one of the robbers. Charles Clark was
later identified by the girl in a lineup as the man who shot her father. One of the other defendants implicated Clark in an initial statement, but he
and two others said at the trial later that Clark had no part in it. Clark’s landlady testified that he was home all that day. Nevertheless, Clark was convicted primarily on the identification testimony
of the young woman and was sentenced to life imprisonment.”

“Clark tried for a new trial several times over the 30 years
imprisonment, but it was denied each time. Partly because Clark was an
exemplary prisoner he was offered parole by the prison authorities and later
was offered a pardon and commutation of sentence, but he turned these down
because acceptance of such terms would have been a tacit admission of guilt. At one point in a quest for a new trial he was offered the opportunity to
plead to a lesser charge, the sentence of which would have freed him
immediately. Again he refused.”

“Finally in 1968 the case was assigned to the Legal Aid &
Defenders Association of Detroit. The attorneys researched early
transcripts and discovered that the victim’s daughter, the sole identifying
witness, had originally said that she could not identify Clark as one of the
bandits. In an affidavit in support of the motion for a new trial the
witness revealed that after she said she could not identify the defendant,
the Hamtramck detectives had pointed Clark out as the guilty man before the
lineup. Clark was granted a new trial in 1968 and the case was
dismissed on motion of the prosecutor.” –
P v A

In 1972 the Michigan legislature awarded Clark $10,000 for his
30 years of wrongful imprisonment. (MOJ)
[1/11]